"I first talked about doing all of this in August of 1958," Gingrich told an interviewer from GQ a few years ago. All what?

Saving civilization.

For someone so boastful, surreally ambitious, condescending, compulsively philandering and just generally preposterous, it's always been oddly hard to truly dislike Newt Gingrich. If I had to guess the reason, I'd say it has something to do with the boastfulness, the surreal ambition, the condecension, the compulsive philandering and the general preposterousness.

True, almost every politician (and not just every politician) may be a walking tangle of neediness, but few of them wear it quite so openly. This lends Gingrich a vulnerability that at times, confusingly enough – and despite his being quite capable of deeply unpleasant tactics – seems almost endearing.

And so, as the former House speaker's campaign chunters towards a close – it will finally, finally end in Virginia tomorrow, we're told, although frankly who knows? – let's look back, with a mixture of bafflement and a twisted kind of respect, at some of the highlights:

Tiny janitorsCalling America's child labour laws "truly stupid", Gingrich uses a November speech at Harvard University to propose a Dickensian alternative. At first glance, this idea sounds ridiculous, but when you stop to think about it – nope, still ridiculous.

Bitten by penguinGingrich loves zoo animals, but they don't always love him back. Or maybe the penguin bite was done lovingly? We shall never know, but it doesn't really matter, because this story generated the headline "Newt Gingrich Bitten by a Penguin", thus making the world a measurably better place.

A permanent moon colony (presumably with zoos)"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American," Gingrich notoriously explained in a speech in Florida, adding further random thoughts about how big the population of such a colony might have to be before its residents could petition to become a US state. The whole notion of a moon colony by the end of a second Gingrich term was absurd, though, noted a correspondent to the St Louis Times-Dispatch, on the grounds that:

Attacking John KingIf there's one thing truly shocking about Gingrich's private life, it's John King having the temerity to ask about it. And in any case – as Fox News's celebrity psychologist Keith Ablow noted – Gingrich's non-monogamous approach to monogamy simply demonstrates that he has a lot of leftover love to share with the American people.

"If you went to somebody who was a great cook and you said 'do you think you can bake a birthday cake' and they said 'sure I can bake a birthday cake,' the odds are pretty high they'll be able to bake a birthday cake. Now it helps to have a recipe for birthday cakes and it helps to have baked one. President Obama's biggest challenge is, that he has exactly the wrong ideas. He belongs to an ideology that believes the way you get hard eggs is you freeze them."

I take it that's clear. And if not, perhaps the fundamental value of Gingrich's contribution to American politics can be driven home by citing my personal favourite from among his collection of aphorisms. It doesn't actually come from this campaign, but never mind, because it is, you'll surely agree, timeless:

"A mere 40 years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning. No bureaucrat would have invented it. And that's what freedom is all about."